For the past few years I have enjoyed reading the many letters from Ronald L. Rindge about endangered steelhead trout in Malibu Creek, but he apparently has no more substantive comments to offer. His letter last week devolved into ad hominem attacks on everyone involved in the Malibu Creek restoration project now underway. As Rindge notes, the namesake dam, completed by his ancestors in 1926, indeed no longer blocks sand and other sediment from replenishing the beach. But that is only because the reservoir behind Rindge dam filled with sediment to about 98% full by the late 1950s, making it totally defunct as a water supply reservoir for nearly 60 years, twice the duration of its functionality. The dam continues to be a liability in a State Park, with a 30-year deficit of beach nourishment still sequestered behind it. Despite the wishful thinking by Rindge and his bizarre arguments about Portola of 1770, numerous technical reports, historic photos, and published articles verify the presence of steelhead in Malibu Creek above the dam location. News articles prior to 1924 reveal that kids hooked 30-inch fish in Cold Creek, above the dam location. At that size, the fish definitely was a steelhead from the ocean, long before the State introduced trout as a game fish in the watershed. For more than 80 years, Rindge Dam has decimated this now-endangered species from fulfilling its genetic destiny by swimming upstream to premium spawning habitat. As for the financial costs of the Malibu Creek project, those funds certainly could pay for public libraries or schools as Rindge and his allies often point out; however, that is not how agency budgets really work with such choices. It might as well be libraries versus any other government spending one does not like. Regarding for the assertion Rindge makes that we fish conservationists and our agency colleagues are motivated by “job security”, most of us could be reaping a far more lucrative career on the other side of the issue, justifying how and why to degrade steelhead habitat instead. Rindge further derides us and elected officials as being “politically correct” and against the “welfare of the citizens.” We proudly wear that PC label if our efforts help to recover this magnificent fish so the next generation of Malibuites actually can catch a few with their camera or fly rod.
David Pritchett
Program Director,
Southern California
Steelhead Coalition